The present invention relates generally to the field of route planning, and more particularly to determining a recommended route.
Generally speaking, route planning refers to finding one or more suggested routes between an origin and a destination. Typically, the route is associated with driving directions for a motor vehicle. Additionally, routes are planned for walking, bicycling, or otherwise for traversing a ground or air path from one physical location to another. Route searches may be optimized on different criteria, for example, fastest, shortest, least changes, and cheapest. Further, route searches may be constrained to leave or arrive at a certain time, to avoid certain waypoints, and so on.
Driving route planning is a very complex process involving, for example, time spent on a route, mileage driven on the route, alternative routes, fuel consumption, and pay toll costs. The most cost-effective route involving several nodes or stopovers may be computed by minimizing the distance traveled and/or time taken.